Written by

Mike Brudenell

Detroit Free Press Sports Writer

Dave Villwock rounds the corner during Heat 4B at the hydroplane races on the Detroit River last year. He ended up winning the unlimited event for the fifth straight time. / Kathleen Galligan/Detroit Free Press

Unlimited hydroplane great Dave Villwock will be at the Detroit River later this week.

That’s the good news for APBA Gold Cup organizers and his fans.

The downside: he won’t race in the sport’s most venerable event on Sunday, one he has finished first in 10 times, including the last five races. He won last year’s Gold Cup on a treacherous Detroit River with a broken rear stabilizing wing.

Instead, Villwock, who with 67 victories is the most successful unlimited hydroplane pilot in history and one of the most outspoken, will put his efforts into being a consultant behind the U-37 Schumacher Racing entry Miss Beacon Plumbing to be driven by J. Michael Kelly.

Villwock severed links with his former team, Ellstrom Racing, in May after an incredible run in the U-1 Spirit of Qatar 96 boat, announcing his retirement in the process — one that shocked many in hydroplane circles and was perhaps fueled by an incident at the world championships in Doha, Qatar, in January when Villwock intentionally mowed down a bunch of buoys.

This past weekend, Villwock, who is from Seattle, was with boat owner Billy (The Kid) Schumacher, a two-time Gold Cup champion, at the Lucas Oil Indiana Governor’s Cup unlimited hydroplane event at Madison, Ind., alongside the Ohio River. Unfortunately, rising water levels flooded the pits at Madison and prevented any boats from being launched over the Fourth of July regatta there.

When contacted Monday, Villwock was traveling with his wife Holly in Billy and Jane Schumacher’s motor coach to visit the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum and then head up to Detroit.

“I’ve never seen the water that high (at Madison),” said Villwock, a fierce competitor who lost two fingers on his right hand in a racing accident and has rubbed fellow racers and H1 Unlimited Hydroplane officials the wrong way in the past. “We were able to sign autographs and such but there was no racing. It’s a real shame.”

Madison’s bad luck, however, means no boats were damaged and a full field of 10 Unlimited Hydroplanes will be at the Motor City for the 104th Detroit Yacht Club APBA Gold Cup presented by Jarvis Property Restoration, with practice and racing scheduled Friday through Sunday.

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“We are coming to win in Detroit — J. Michael is a great little driver,” said Villwock, 59, who has also served as a team manager and crew chief and was a former driver of Miss Budweiser.

Villwock said his retirement was long term — with a “maybe” he might return to the cockpit of a 3,000-horse power thunderboat under one condition.

“I enjoy being around boat racing, driving was just part of it, and I don’t see my retirement changing,” he said. “But, I would step back in and help (out) if someone got injured.”

On the Qatar affair, Villwock was adamant that hitting the buoys in the heats was the result of a unique set of circumstances, his only way of testing his boat and fixing a fuel flow problem his team had experienced at the championships and had not been given the opportunity, he said, to correct.

“I asked H1 if we could go and test,” he said. “We won the first heat but were hit by a fuel violation. In the second heat, we didn’t get the boat in the water in time, made it finally, but everyone was at the starting line before I could get there.

“The only chance we had to test the boat was to stop running in the third heat by driving over some buoys so they couldn’t start it. The officials thought I was getting mad, and they were pissed. But it was the only chance I had to change history, and it was a decision I made. Was it a good or bad idea? I’m not sure.”

In the fourth heat at Doha, Villwock hit a roller and went airborne, landing hard. A fire broke out in the engine compartment of the Spirit of Qatar and Villwock was rescued by a safety boat.